You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, search, view attachments, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!

Location: What Ain't No Country I Ever Heard Of...They Speak English in What?

Posts: 62,201

‘Arrested Development’ Actors To Reunite At NAB As Talks For New Season Continue

A Q&A session with Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos at the upcoming NAB Show will feature Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz and several cast members of the cult Fox comedy series, which is producing a new season for the streaming giant. Scheduled to appear are Will Arnett, Jeffrey Tambor, David Cross, Jessica Walter and Alia Shawkat. I’ve learned that none of the Arrested Development actors have deals to return yet but negotiations are going smoothly and filming is expected to begin in the summer. As for the absence of stars Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Michael Cera and Tony Hale, sources chalk it up to unavailability, not to any any issues with their negotiations. Coincidentally, it was at the most recent Arrested Development reunion at The New Yorker Festival in October where Hurwitz announced the Arrested Development TV return. Also scheduled to appear during Sarandos’ NAB session are creators/cast of the company’s upcoming series Hemlock Grove and Orange Is The New Black.

Doubters to the left: The "Arrested Development" reunion took another step toward reality on Tuesday when creator Mitch Hurwitz and several members of the cast appeared onstage together at a Netflix-sponsored event in Las Vegas.

Speaking on the floor of the National Association of Broadcasters convention, Netflix chief Ted Sarandos confirmed that all ten episodes of Arrested's long-awaited fourth season will premiere together on a single day sometime next year.

Hurwitz also confirmed that production is set to begin this summer, but he also dropped a new nugget of information about what form the revival will take.

Originally, Hurwitz's plan had been to make the revival like an anthology, with each episode telling a somewhat self-contained story about a specific character.

"That is now kind of evolving into becoming more like the old show again."

The reason for the change: Hurwitz sees a chance to tweak the show's format to take advantage of the fact that the full ten-episode season will debut at once, rather than over two-and-a-half months.

"There's something exciting about trying to break the form again," he said.

While Hurwitz didn't elaborate on just how he'll do this, he indicated it might related to the way the writers deliver red herrings and other surprises to viewers (think back to season one, when Jason Bateman's girlfriend turned out to not be blind).

"There's going to be some mystery sprinkled throughout this, but instead of watching one a week and try to get ahead of it, the hope is fans will watch them all together and then go back and look for clues and connections," Hurwitz explained.

"We'd also like to use the technology to provide additional material, where you might be able to access another part of the story."

As for the fact that any big end-of-season twists will likely be floating around the interwebs within a few hours of the show's Netflix debut, Hurwitz doesn't seem too concerned, noting that movies (such as The Cabin in the Woods) have successfully battled a similar situation.

Plus, he said, "It's comedy. The twists really aren't as important as the characters."

Hurwitz and the cast made no mention onstage of the rumored feature film that's been expected to follow the TV revival. He did, however, say he'd very much be open to a season five or six on Netflix.

"We would love this to be the first first of many visits," Hurwitz said.

He also confirmed that Showtime, currently run by former "Arrested" exec producer David Nevins, had been in serious talks to acquire the show, but that ultimately Netflix offered a more interested business model, as well as a base of already-loyal "Arrested" viewers.

"The show's audience has grown over the last six years because of viewers streaming it," Hurwitz said. "It's been like putting jokes in a bottle and then having them come back years later to say, 'Ha ha.'"

"It's kind of a one-joke thing. But if you guys don't mind bringing it back, we'll give it to you."

(For the record, the audience reacted with strong applause to the idea of a Loblaw appearance in season four).

• Hurwitz mildly embarrassed Shawkat by reminding her that Cera was her first ever kiss.

"I've kissed a lot of people since then," Shawkat jokingly shot back.

• Sarandos dropped some data on how well "Mad Men" does on Netflix, saying 3.5 million subscribers had watched the fourth season of the show since it went up on the service, and that 800,000 viewers watched all three seasons.

What's more, this Monday, the most-streamed episode of "Mad Men" was actually the show's pilot, perhaps indicating some folks have decided to start catching up on the series.

"We believe we found an untapped audience of the show," taking partial credit for "Mad Men's" 20 percent ratings jump at the start of the current season.

• Sarandos said Netflix's first original series, "Lilyhammer", will return for a second season. He still didn't say how many people have streamed the show.

This is actually really exciting news whether is goes off with a bang or not and despite any missing characters.

I started watching Arrested Development because of Netflix and I would thoroughly support them - I'm not keen on them going to Showtime exclusively. That would really limit members of their Netflix viewer base, like me.

__________________
"I know the difference between TV and reality, Jeff. TV has structure, it makes sense, there are likable leading men. In real life, we have this. We have you." - Abed Nadir, Community

Although the administrators and moderators of the Sitcoms Online Message Boards will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither the owners of the Sitcoms Online Message Boards, nor Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. (developers of vBulletin) will be held responsible for the content of any message.
The owners of the Sitcoms Online Message Boards reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.